Backup Your VPS or Dedicated Server Without Losing Data (R1Soft & WHM Guide)

Running a VPS or dedicated server is great until you wake up one day and wonder, “If this box dies right now, what do I lose?” This guide walks through simple, practical backup options so your hosting environment doesn’t become a single point of failure.
We’ll cover R1Soft and WHM backups in plain language, so your VPS backup and dedicated server backup plan is clear, predictable, and doesn’t blow up your server’s disk space.

Before You Start: Where Do Backups Actually Live?

First thing to sort out is where your backups go.

• R1Soft backups usually live on a separate backup system. They don’t eat into your allocated server space.

• WHM backups live on the server itself by default. They do use your allocated space and can push you over limits if you’re not careful.

So your basic trade-off in the hosting industry is:

• R1Soft: convenient, space‑friendly on your main server.

• WHM: powerful, flexible, but heavy on local resources.

Keep that in mind as you pick your backup setup.

Option 1: R1Soft Backups (Snapshot Style)

R1Soft runs as a plugin and takes periodic “snapshots” of your home directory. Each snapshot becomes a restore point you can roll back to if something breaks — a bad deploy, a deleted file, a broken update.

What R1Soft is good at:

• Takes incremental backups of your home directory

• Lets you roll back websites or applications to older states

• Doesn’t use your server’s allocated disk space for storage

A couple of technical notes:

• InnoDB database tables are backed up, but restoring them can be trickier. If you rely heavily on InnoDB, test your restore process.

• Backups are not a 100% guarantee. Firewalls, network issues, or backup server hardware failures can still cause problems.

Because of that, you should also keep periodic manual backups (for example, cPanel full account backups downloaded to your own machine or offsite storage). Think of R1Soft as your fast safety net, and manual backups as your long‑term insurance.

Restoring Files with R1Soft

Here’s how a typical restore looks in real life:

1. Log in to your hosting control panel (for example, cPanel) on the VPS or dedicated server you want to restore.

2. In the Files section, open the R1Soft Backup tool.

3. Browse to the folder or file you want to restore.

4. Choose how you want to bring data back:

   • Browse – open the backup and download or restore selected files.

   • Backup – download the entire backup as a .tar or .zip archive to your local machine.

   • Send to Agent – restore a full set of files for your account from a selected backup point.

5. If you’re unsure about databases or InnoDB tables, ask your hosting provider to help with those restores.

Once you’ve done this once or twice, it feels a lot less scary. It becomes a simple “oops, roll back to yesterday” move instead of a full‑blown disaster.

If you’d like to test backup strategies on a clean environment before touching production, it’s smart to spin up a fast, disposable server just for experiments.
👉 Try GTHost instant dedicated servers and practice your backup and restore workflow in minutes
After you’ve rehearsed on a test server, running R1Soft restores on your real VPS or dedicated server feels much more under control.

Option 2: WHM Backups (Powerful but Heavy)

WHM backups let you control backup behavior at a very fine level. You can decide when to back up, how many copies to keep, and which users are included.

But there’s a big warning label here:

• WHM backups are resource‑intensive.

• They consume a lot of disk space on the server.

• If you go over your space limit, your VPS or dedicated server can slow down or even go down.

As a rough rule, one backup can take 50–75% of an account’s total size. So a 20 GB account might need another 10–15 GB for a backup. Keep that in mind before you flip the switch.

Turning On WHM Backups

To configure WHM backups on your server:

1. Log in to WHM on the server you want to back up.

2. In the search box (top left), type Backup Configuration.

3. Click Backup Configuration when it shows up.

4. In the Backup Status area under Global Settings, make sure Enable is selected.

5. In Backup Type, select Compressed so backups take less space.

6. For very large accounts, you can increase the maximum destination timeout seconds — but understand this can slow the server down during backup windows.

Scheduling and Retention

Next, you decide when and how many backups to keep:

1. In the Scheduling and Retention section, choose daily, weekly, or monthly, and pick the exact days.

2. Set how many daily backups to retain. In most hosting setups, keeping one or two backups and backing up up to three times a week is a good balance, unless you have a lot of extra disk space.

The goal is simple: enough restore points to feel safe, not so many that your server runs out of space.

Files to Include

Now you decide what WHM actually backs up:

1. In the Files section, untick Backup System Files. This keeps system‑level files out of your backup and saves space.

2. Leave the other defaults alone unless you have a specific reason to change them.

3. Click Select Users.

You’ll see a list of accounts:

• Make sure the master checkbox at the top right is ticked.

• Use the dropdown next to it and choose Enable All Backups if you want a full‑coverage backup.

• If you prefer, toggle individual users on or off in the Backups column.

Remember: when new accounts are created later, they are usually disabled for backups by default. Make it a habit to enable backups for each new user, or revisit the Backup User Selection screen regularly.

Database Settings and Backup Location

Finish the setup with databases and the backup directory:

1. In the Databases section, select Per Account Only. This keeps database backups tied to each account, which makes restores simpler.

2. In Configure Backup Directory, you can normally leave the default settings unless your hosting provider tells you otherwise.

Once all that is set, your WHM backups will run automatically on the schedule you chose. Just keep an eye on disk usage. If you notice the server getting tight on space, cut back the number of retained backups or the frequency.

Conclusion

Backing up a VPS or dedicated server comes down to two things: where your backups live and how painful restores feel when something breaks. R1Soft gives you easy snapshot‑style rollbacks without using your main disk space, while WHM backups offer deep control at the cost of extra load and storage.

For many real‑world hosting scenarios, the sweet spot is a mix: automated tools like R1Soft or WHM for convenience, plus periodic off‑server copies for long‑term safety. That way your VPS backup and dedicated server backup strategy stays predictable, stable, and doesn’t surprise you on billing day.

👉 Why GTHost is suitable for VPS and dedicated server backup scenarios is simple: instant dedicated servers, fast global locations, and the freedom to run the backup tools you already trust, so you can test, tweak, and rely on your backup plan instead of just hoping it works.